TUS Random Tales - Drawing from the Well
by The Universal Storyteller
Summary: This will be a random series of tales from various media forms. Most tales may feature canon characters from certain anime/manga series, but not all might. There may also be tales featuring various TV show characters, for instance, but I don't know how long this series will be, and what kinds of media forms I'll draw from during it. Hope you'll all enjoy these tales, in time.


In this series of random tales, there may periodically be random crossovers between story universes featuring characters and/or settings, et cetera, from various media forms. Whether they're from anime, manga, books, or whatever, there may periodically be crossovers between elements of the above. I may or may not stick to certain canon details in various tales in it, so please don't complain if I don't do so in them. I will write as the mood and all strikes me, but one thing is certain, at least. I'll DEFINITELY not be writing same-gender pairings of a certain kind of nature, so don't even ask for them in your reviews, folks. All romantic-type pairings, if present in these tales, will be between males and females only, and characters will also definitely not change their actual genders from their birth ones, for sure, in any case whatsoever.

As for the ages of most, if not all, named characters in these tales, they'll be mentioned as needed and as appropriate, where and when possible, prior to any tale here. Be aware that they may also vary at times, depending on the needs of a particular tale, whatever those needs may be. And if the tales in question are set during any particular canon's timeline, such a fact will also be noted, as the need arises, if and whenever possible and all. I reserve the right to change and/or omit any character-related details I so choose for any or all of these tales, if and whenever the needs of the tales may warrant and/or require me to do so, as well. I may displease some of you with those potential changes periodically here, of course, but that's a chance I'm fully willing to take here, everyone.

All characters, settings, et cetera, are property of their respective creators, where applicable and all, and I claim no ownership of them, if they are not of my own creation and imagination and all. I am not doing this for financial profit either, et cetera, so there is no need to claim theft and all here. My original characters and settings, et cetera, will be noted as necessary, when appropriate, for everyone's information, for sure.

I will start out with a chapter that will involve certain _Love Hina_ characters, at least, if not characters from other media franchises, et cetera, I think. It will be an AU story this time around, at least to a degree, so you have been forewarned. And it will not feature the most common pairing for _Love Hina_, either, for that matter. Let's see if you can guess the chosen pairing for this three-shot tale before the end of its first part here, or not, people.

* * *

Ages of characters:

* * *

Keitaro Urashima: 24

Shinobu Maehara: 22 / 47

Mutsumi Otohime: 25 / 50

Mitsune Konno: 23 / ?

Kaolla Su: 23 / 48

Motoko Aoyama: 22 / ?

Naru Narusegawa: 22 / ?

Nyamo Namo: 23 / 48

Assorted other minor characters

* * *

To understand why certain characters have two different ages listed, you will have to read on and find out. I will say nothing more at this time here about that or about other things, so let's see if you can figure out what happened, and why, by the end of this tale's first chapter. But I will say this. Where there are two versions of the same character present, even if one version is inside the other somehow, the older version will be referred to by their last name, where and when possible and all. Until later, TUS out.

* * *

_The Defender and the Hunted One, Part One_

* * *

Time. It is something people often have in abundance, while others do not. But everyone eventually will leave this world in time, one way or another. Whether through death or by some other means, everyone leaves this world, or will, if enough time passes for them in each of their lives, long or short, or anywhere in between, as the case may be for them all.

When one is running short of time, and they know their time is about to come to leave, do they seek to right things with those they have wronged, or not? What would they do, if they could, even if they could no longer move like they once could, and if they couldn't cross time physically to rectify their mistakes of earlier years in their lives?

We now come upon a middle-aged woman confined largely to a bed in a hospital, with three longtime friends near her. Tubing and needles and other medical supplies surround her, much to her dismay and distress, as she wishes to be entirely free of them, for she doesn't like being restrained needlessly by anything, even in her middle age.

The clock on the wall says noon, and the calendar on the wall says it's now mid-September 2020, but she can't see that from where she lies in what doctors and nurses think will soon be her deathbed. Although much light is coming through the nearby window of her hospital room, she can't see much of anything. For her sight is very weak and getting weaker, and she is nearly blind, as she struggles to free herself from the things that keep her essentially confined to her bed here.

* * *

"Get me out of here, please! I don't want to die here!" cried a blonde woman who appeared to be in her early to middle fifties, but was actually a few years younger than that in her life.

"We've tried, Kaolla," replied a black-haired woman with tanned skin who was about the same age as the woman in the bed now. "But they won't release you, not even to go home, it seems. We've tried to convince them to let you die at home, but they'd rather keep you here for observation and all, for some yet-unknown reason or reasons."

"We have to get back home! If I don't get home, we won't be able to save anyone, and you ladies will eventually disappear, as if you never even existed at all, Nyamo!"

"What do you mean, Kaolla-chan?" asked another black-haired woman a little younger than the tanned woman next to her in the room.

"I saw something on the news today while you were all out getting yourselves lunch, and learned that the Apartments are about to be demolished for lack of sufficiently active residents being present for a long enough time there. There are a lot of things still there that could cause a lot of harm and danger to many people in the area, if they're not taken care of properly, and I've not been able to monitor them due to being in this prison of sorts for too long, you see. I need to get back home, and make sure that those things are dealt with, one way or another, safely enough. And I really need your help, ladies, no matter what it takes. I don't want to die here, Shinobu!"

"What can we do, to perhaps convince the doctors and nurses to let you go home, then?" asked the last woman present currently in Kaolla's room here.

"They won't let me go by choice, I'm sure. You ladies are going to have to break me out of here, unless I miss my guess somehow. I don't have much time left, I fear, and nor do the others who are at risk here, Melon-chan. If you just get me home, I'll do what needs to be done, no matter what it takes, and no matter what it costs me. Just so long as the rest of you are safe, I can leave this world in peace, I'm sure."

"Tell us what to do, then, Kaolla," said the first woman who'd spoken to her here.

For the next twenty or minutes, with much effort on her part, and with as few questions asked as possible by her three friends, Kaolla briefly outlined an escape plan for them all. By the time her strength seemed to wane for a bit here, she'd given them all very specific orders, and they promised to carry them out as best and as quickly as they could, as soon as possible.

About thirty minutes later, they began executing Kaolla's escape plan, after two nurses came into her room to do their hourly checks on her as she then lay in her potential deathbed. They'd all hid either under the bed or in a closet until that happened. Once those nurses arrived, Mutsumi flashed out of the room through the open doorway, briefly screening Shinobu and Nyamo from their sights before two sudden karate chops to their necks knocked out the nurses and dropped them on Mutsumi's way out that doorway.

It wasn't too much longer before both nurses had been pushed into closets and silenced with impromptu gags of a sort, and dressed up in hospital patient-style gowns instead of their standard uniforms. Shinobu and Nyamo quickly donned those same uniforms and the nurses' hats themselves, and waited for Mutsumi to return as necessary to Kaolla's room.

Mutsumi returned within twenty minutes, having speedily secured their preferred escape route out of the hospital. Although she wasn't entirely sure yet whether it'd be successful enough to allow her comrades to bring Kaolla home easily enough in time, for sure. She'd quickly hacked into the hospital's computers from the first available unsecured computer she found after leaving Kaolla's room temporarily. That done, she quickly disabled all required security cameras that'd normally allow views all along that preferred escape route, and then used a few other devices from her handbag to further complicate things for those who'd potentially try to prevent their escape with Kaolla using any means then at their disposal.

Five minutes after returning to Kaolla's room, the quartet was out of it completely, once several medical supplies and other things had been taken out of it as well. Although some things were still attached to various parts of Kaolla's body, she was no longer in the bed five minutes after Mutsumi's return to her room. Instead, she was now being escorted silently through the necessary corridors and into an elevator elsewhere in the hospital, safe from being seen by any security cameras as they all rode down to the ground floor of it.

Five more minutes allowed them to exit the hospital, and enter an empty ambulance unexpectedly parked near the hospital's main entrance. They put Kaolla in the ambulance, along with Shinobu in the back, to monitor her, while Nyamo took the wheel for the ambulance. A few devices were placed all around the interior of the ambulance to essentially cloak the ambulance from anyone's view, and then Mutsumi went to the vehicle in the parking lot that Kaolla's friends had most recently driven to the hospital in order to visit her that very day. Mutsumi used a few more devices to cloak it as well from other people's view and all, and then the two chosen drivers immediately set off for Hinata City, at their best possible speed, from the hospital that Kaolla had essentially been held captive in for several weeks.

When they were far enough away from that hospital, they engaged certain programs on the necessary devices, and their vehicles both shapeshifted, even while still cloaked, to assume turtle-like shapes. Not only that, they also became airborne vehicles, at that.

Flying through the air undetected, they flashed through the air silently, until they reached the vicinity of the hill that had several secret underground entrances and passages below a now-largely unpopulated apartments-based property. Entering a certain code on one of the devices in each vehicle now present, they were granted access to said subterranean passageways, and entered them, before the entrances in question closed up again as needed here.

Two minutes later, after traveling through a certain passageway, the two vehicles drove up into the main courtyard of the entire Hinata Apartments complex. Once there, they quickly were parked, and everyone left those vehicles as needed, although Kaolla had to have considerable help in doing that from the others now with her.

Nyamo and Mutsumi each grabbed up all the medical supplies they could then carry, and rushed them to Kaolla's room, while Shinobu, for her part, supported Kaolla as needed on their way into the Hinata Apartments' main building here. It took about twenty minutes for Shinobu to finally get Kaolla to her room, because Kaolla was extremely weak here, and needed to be helped up the main stairs to her room. While she was doing that, the other two women were still ferrying the necessary medical supplies and other necessary items to it as quickly as they could, using another quicker route to it. By the time that Shinobu finally was able to get Kaolla to her room, and sit her down in the lab part of it, Mutsumi and Nyamo had made two trips up and down to it, and they then helped Shinobu settle Kaolla down in a chair there as needed and all.

As soon as Kaolla recognized sufficiently well that she was now in her lab, she quickly began giving orders to the others, while relying mostly on her senses of touch, smell, and hearing to tell where she was in it, and where the others were as well. She could not see very well, at the current time, for various reasons, whether known or not known then, but she still could recognize the feel, the smell, and the sound of certain people and things in her life, in any case. And so, she went about directing the other three women now with her here.

Thirty or so minutes later, Shinobu found a certain book on a bookshelf along one wall of Kaolla's room. Following her dying friend's directions, she pulled it out a bit, and a hidden passage was revealed that most former residents of the Hinata Apartments complex never had even known about while still resident here on the complex's grounds. She ran her hands along one side of that revealed passageway, and a flashlight dropped suddenly into her left hand.

"Now what, Kaolla?" she called out, as calmly and as quietly as possible here, not knowing what to expect here at the present time.

"Look for a painting with strange symbols on it, and an animal like a crane. Then probe along the right side of it. There should be a lever that your fingers should encounter, if you find that painting easily enough, behind the front of its picture frame."

"Found it," Shinobu called, a few brief moments later.

"Lift that lever as far as it will go. That should release it from the wall you're looking at now, to reveal an alcove with something like a transporter room chamber from any of the _Star Trek_ television series."

No more than a minute later, Shinobu called, "Done. I even see what appears to be a transporter pad that has room for up to twenty people at a time, at that. Now what?"

"There should be a console standing in front of that transporter room pad. Do exactly as I tell you here, Shinobu. You can't make a single mistake here, or all is lost."

"Okay, tell me what to do, then." Kaolla did so, and didn't stutter one bit, even though her strength was fading quickly, and even though Mutsumi and Nyamo were both still doing what they could to help her here. It took her another two minutes to give Shinobu all the necessary instructions here. Shinobu set the timer on the transporter console of sorts for a fifteen-minute departure time, once she'd done everything else she'd needed to do before doing that, about ten minutes later.

That done, Kaolla quickly called Shinobu back to her side, along with the others, for she knew that once she sent her three friends to the alcove area that Shinobu had just discovered, she'd never see them again before her expected demise here. She would need about another seven minutes, at least, after doing so, to ensure they'd be able to get away from the area safely enough, if all went sufficiently according to plan for them all, before they left the grounds once and for all in the current time period, she thought.

Five minutes of quick goodbyes and final briefings later, and with many tears shed between all four women here, Kaolla told them, just after handing Shinobu a very thick journal and a set of video tapes, "You all need to leave. It has been a joy, at least, to know you all in this life. Remember me always, and maybe we'll meet each other again later on, somehow, in eternity. Go save the others, if you can, my friends." Shinobu immediately put those things in a small portable pocket dimension of sorts, to be retrieved later when needed and possible.

Not wanting to part from their friend, but each still realizing they had to, they hurried to comply with her orders, and entered the alcove in question about a minute before the preset departure time. They rushed onto the pad, and hoped that where they were going, and when they were going, things would work out for the better for all concerned parties here.

Kaolla monitored things from where she still was in her lab area, and said, "Girls, I love you all," as they began to be sent to the destination time and place she'd just told Shinobu to enter into the console mere minutes before. Ten seconds after she said that, she quickly ensured they would each reach their intended chronological and physical destination safely, although not without much effort and difficulty on her part here.

It took her about another five to ten minutes for her to do so, and to make sure that when she was no more, that no significant enough trouble would ultimately happen that would jeopardize the lives of many innocents in and around the Hinata City area of Japan. Once she was absolutely certain that wouldn't be the case here, she reached into a nearby drawer and pulled out something that appeared to be some sort of cross between a self-reloading automatic pistol and a lightsaber, before swiveling her chair around suddenly, after noticing something out of the corner of her eye elsewhere in her room. She was fortunate enough to notice it before it fully arrived in her room, and said, "You're too late, they're all gone. You'll never take this place alive now, even if I die." Firing off three shots, and swinging her weapon towards what was entering her room through a pulsing rip of some sort in the air, she wounded the being coming out of it. Although she didn't kill it with her first few shots or the swinging of her blade, she did wound it severely.

The semi-amorphous being struck her seconds later with what appeared to be several spike-bearing tentacles, and they battled each other for several more very heated moments, until she was somehow finally able to shove her nearly-ruined weapon far enough into its mouth of sorts, and fire off several more shots. But even as she did that, the being struck back, and several spikes pierced her through her heart from multiple directions. Her final words, as she breathed her last couple of breaths just a few seconds later were, "I will live again, but you will burn forever. My friends are safe from your kind from now on, and those I love who have been killed will live again. For I have now changed history for the better, and this history will no longer continue to exist!" With those words, and with a final unconscious reflex action, her trigger finger squeezed the trigger, so that it held it down until there were no more bullets left in the weapon to fire at the being in question here, as she died, dropping to the floor near her favorite tree in her room.

Bullets tore through the being, and then through all the nearby walls and equipment in her lab and room, until complete devastation was all that was visible in it here, but not to her newly-made corpse, other than the wounds the being had just inflicted on her itself. The bullets, however, didn't completely penetrate out of her room and/or lab, and the rest of the Apartments' main building was undamaged. At least because of the battle, anyway, it wasn't.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shinobu, Nyamo, and Mutsumi were now in the process of being sent into the past. Not only that, they were being de-aged in terms of their current looks. They were invisible to those whose time they were traveling through, as well, en route to where they were going, and when they were going.

The transfer process took what seemed like hours to them, but was actually twenty minutes in real-time, though they didn't yet know that, if they ever would. When they arrived at their destination, they quickly found themselves vanishing from each other's sight, as they somehow melted into the physical bodies of their younger selves suddenly, merging with them as necessary here.

It took them several moments to adjust to their now-changed circumstances here, but they soon realized where they each now were. They were in their younger selves' physical bodies, and those younger bodies were all located in Shinobu's room at the moment. As soon as they all recognized that fact, Maehara said, now in Shinobu's voice, "We need to find Su, and find her soon. We have to warn her what is about to happen, so that she doesn't create the device that led to the trouble we just escaped from here. We have three days, and not a minute longer, at most, unless I miss my guess, to warn her in time. Four days later, and the unspeakable disaster will happen that happened before. We have to keep that from happening, for sure, ladies."

Otohime asked, "Do you think we can do so in time, Shinobu?" having just heard footsteps beginning to approach Shinobu's room, as she briefly caught a glimpse of Shinobu's alarm clock, and saw that it was late afternoon on September 8, 1995, almost 25 years to the day before the date they'd been sent into the past from.

"We have no choice, unless you want what happened to occur again. We've been given this chance, and we may not have another chance to avoid this disaster, if we fail. If we fail, many likely will die, so failure is not an option here, Mutsumi. Now what do you want for supper tonight?" She added that last bit here, for she had also just overheard Naru and Motoko coming towards her room, along with Kitsune, while talking.

Namo said, having heard them too, "We'll have to continue this discussion later, it seems. Let's do so after the others go to bed tonight, if that's all right with you all."

"Agreed. How about a nice meal of pasta and vegetables, Shinobu?" asked Mutsumi.

"That I can do, I think. I just bought a lot of groceries earlier, if I remember correctly. Okay, meet me here by eleven, and don't let anyone see you, especially Sempai or Kaolla. Got it, girls?" asked Maehara, in Shinobu's voice.

Both of Maehara's current companions nodded silently in acknowledgement. Then Maehara let her younger self talk here and all. "What do you want, Naru and Motoko and Kitsune?" she asked, once she had seen her companions hide under her bed or in her closet, and had opened her bedroom door to converse with the three young women approaching her room.

"Kaolla was wondering how soon supper would be ready. She's getting very hungry, while working on her latest project, and really wants to know," answered Naru.

"It should be ready within an hour or so, if I'm not interrupted and all. Go find things to do, and I'll call you girls when it's ready," she said, with an expression on her face that wouldn't brook any debate about such things at the moment. "Tell Kaolla she'll have to wait just as long as the rest of us do to eat. Besides, Sempai isn't even here. He's attending to some Apartments-related business. You all know we rarely have our meals without him already, if we don't have to. So you'll just have to wait until I'm done making supper here. Now go, for I was working on something in my room when you came by, Naru. I'd like to get back to it, so I can go make supper, if you don't mind."

"You're up to something, Shinobu. We'll find out what it is," said Mitsune.

"I am not a trickster, unlike you, Kitsune. Go now, and find something to do, until you are summoned to supper along with everyone else. And don't even think of challenging me either, and all, Motoko, for a woman has a right to her own secrets at times. Would you rather I send some things I found in the laundry room today to your family in Kyoto, or not? I know where they are, and I have hidden them in a secure place you won't be able to find. If you want them back, you'll not challenge me here, for sure."

Naru gaped at her, and then asked, "What's up with you today, Shinobu?"

"I'm in a bad mood, and I strongly advise you to watch your tone with me for a while. I'm not in the mood for your sheer foolishness right now. I know exactly what you did yesterday afternoon when Sempai was cleaning the hot springs. So watch it, Naru. And that's pretty much all I'm going to say right now about that, I think. Besides, I know you talked to Motoko and Kitsune last night about that sort of thing, for I heard you in the halls last night, while he was still coming back here from wherever you'd sent him. I had to spend a good while patching him and his clothes up after he returned from there. So I'd suggest you watch yourself very closely for a while with me."

That said, Shinobu then turned to go back into her room, and didn't say anything more or give them another look at this time. The others spent a few more seconds outside her door, and then Kitsune said, "We're in big trouble, girls. She's rather angry with us right now, it seems."

"You think, Kitsune? She's been angry with us before, every once in an while. Something's up with her, and it's not the usual feminine-type stuff, I think. I don't know why I think that here now, but she's really mad at us now, if I'm not too mistaken here." said Naru, not largely accustomed to Shinobu saying the kinds of things she had just said to her here.

Just then, Motoko unexpectedly got a bad feeling that she couldn't quite understand or explain, and suddenly left Naru and Kitsune still standing all alone outside Shinobu's door. Not knowing why, they soon followed her, until they were knocked off their feet and through the hallway they were now in by strange blasts of wind that had been deflected towards them by an unseen force or presence of some sort, after having been directed towards it by Motoko moments before.

They landed with two brief thuds a few seconds later, knocked unconscious by those blasts of wind, but fortunately not killed, after coming to rest against the hallway's walls. It would take them several minutes, at least, to come out of unconsciousness, after being hit by those blasts, however.

As for Maehara, Namo, and Otohime, they heard the thuds, and Motoko's battle cry, but they al realized that they didn't currently have the means to sufficiently combat what Motoko had just encountered here, at least with conventional technology. They did, however, quickly check on Naru and Kitsune's conditions here, and moments later, Motoko's, once they found her as well. She too was knocked unconscious, and the force or presence that she had engaged was no longer anywhere to be seen or heard or anything, unfortunately, as far as they could currently tell.

Seeing as there was nothing they could really do for their fellow affected residents until they each regained consciousness, at least, they temporarily relinquished bodily control over their physical forms to their younger selves, but resolved to regain it as any particular situation might then require them to here. Shinobu went to the kitchen, while Mutsumi and Nyamo went to the hot springs to attend to certain things their younger selves had been attending to that same day, in Keitaro's absence, when the day's events had originally happened in the first place.

An hour later, Shinobu was putting the final touches on most of the necessary dishes for everyone's supper here, but still had a few things to do before her supper preparations were complete. It was at this time that Keitaro entered the kitchen, after smelling the good food that Shinobu had been working on for a while now. He soon asked, "How was your day, Shinobu?"

She suddenly got a very bad feeling here, and took a few mostly silent, but still deep breaths for a few seconds, before answering his question here. She said, with as neutral a look on her face as was then possible for her to have, "I've had a rough day, Sempai. I don't want to talk about it right now, but maybe later. Here, help me finish supper here, by attending to the vegetables that aren't yet finished. You definitely have seen me make this kind of meal before, so you should know what to do. I'll be back, hopefully, within the next ten or so minutes. If I am not back by then, turn off the stove, et cetera, and wait for me here. Do not leave this kitchen until I return."

"I don't understand."

"I can't explain right now. Maybe later, but not now. Stay here, for your own safety," said Shinobu, as she reached for a hanging frying pan on one of the walls of her kitchen, and also pulled a few knives out of a nearby drawer before putting them in certain pockets for her apron. Moments later, she was gone from her kitchen, and heading upstairs to check on her fellow residents who'd been knocked unconscious for a while, and to let Kaolla know supper was almost ready to be had by all.

When she got to where she'd last seen Naru, Kitsune, and Motoko, they were each not to be seen. No signs of trouble were then present where they'd been, but she still felt at least a little wary here, considering what had happened earlier between her and each of them. She stayed mentally on guard, especially after Maehara took over control of her body again, even as she then headed towards Kaolla's room elsewhere in the Apartments' main building.

Minutes later, seeing nothing particularly amiss at the current time, Shinobu was at Kaolla's door. She didn't waste any needless time, and used the intercom near the door to speak to Kaolla briefly. That done, it wasn't more than a few more seconds before Kaolla's door opened, and allowed Shinobu safe access into her room. Shinobu went immediately to Kaolla, who was then in her lab, and spoke briefly to her.

As Shinobu conversed briefly with Kaolla here, Maehara secretly scanned the lab for potential dangers, through Shinobu's physical eyes. And when she did, she saw several things that displeased her at least a little. For instance, the presence already of certain blueprints for various devices that Kaolla had begun to draw up. Devices that'd cause a lot more trouble than they'd prevent, if made and used as planned or expected, at least. Or even unexpected trouble, if they didn't, in fact.

Maehara resolved to do what she could to prevent Kaolla from making certain devices, but didn't yet know if she or Otohime or Namo would be able to do that well enough here, somehow, of course. For now, though, she would monitor things, and do what she could to prevent the disaster that had occurred before from happening again, if at all possible.

Her secret musings had to suddenly end, however, once she realized that both Shinobu and Kaolla were now exiting Kaolla's lab and then her room. That realized, she went silent again for a while.

Minutes later, everyone was down for supper, even the three who'd earlier been knocked unconscious, for they'd regained consciousness on their own minutes after being checked over by Maehara and those then with her. They'd each silently returned to their respective rooms unknowingly, and had remained there until they began smelling the food that Shinobu had just been working on making in her kitchen.

Supper was quieter for everyone than it had originally been, for Maehara and her companions were not as talkative as they had been originally on the current day. Instead, everyone basically only spoke as the need arose, at least for the most part, although Kaolla did try to stimulate the supper conversation more by joking and all here.

Shinobu said, "Kaolla, there's something I'd like to discuss with you later. Not tonight, but tomorrow, after certain others around here go to work in various places then."

"Care to give me a hint about what you want to talk to me about, perhaps, Shinobu?" asked Kaolla.

"Not in front of present company, no. It's rather important, and they really don't need to know what we have to talk about then."

Kaolla thought for a moment, then said, "Fine. I don't have any real plans for tomorrow, and I don't have work to go to tomorrow, so I'm good with that."

"Good. I'll see you sometime after those who need to work are out for the day."

Not much else was said during the current meal, before everyone finished it, and eventually went about their own business for the rest of the night as their current circumstances then allowed them to. Naru, Kitsune, and Motoko each retired by 9:30, for they were all still feeling the lingering effects of being temporarily knocked unconscious earlier in the day. And Kaolla went to bed, apparently, by 10, followed shortly thereafter by Keitaro around a quarter past 10 o'clock.

Shinobu and Nyamo spent some time with Mutsumi in the laundry room or cleaning the hot springs area after Keitaro went to bed, before ultimately retreating for a while to Shinobu's room as earlier planned. Once they were quite sure that they wouldn't be disturbed, and that no possible trouble was then lurking in and around the entire Hinata Apartments complex, they each took seats in various places all over Shinobu's room. Whether on the bed, the floor, or a chair, they all still did so here.

When they were all settled as much as they each could be, behind a securely-locked door, their older selves quickly regained temporary control over the physical bodies they were currently residing in, although their younger consciousnesses didn't understand yet what was going on here, for sure. Maehara got right to the point, and said, "She's already begun drawing up blueprints to make certain devices that led to the disaster that we are back in time to try and prevent here, it seems."

"So what do you suggest we do, Maehara?" asked Otohime.

"I'm going to take her out for a while, so we can converse away from here. Namo, while we are out, seeing as I know you are often allowed access to her room and/or lab, you are to try and find certain things, including devices, that might potentially cause harm not only to Keitaro, but to everyone else in Hinata City, at least, as best as you can." She briefed Namo in more detail about just what she was talking about here, and Namo soon nodded and acknowledged her orders.

"And what if the others object, supposing any of the others happen to find me having those things in my possession, somehow?" asked Namo.

"Tell them nothing. Yes, I know that might make them wonder, and all, but tell them nothing. And don't let them detain you. You know certain self-defense techniques and all, from being out in the wild for a good while, no doubt. Put them down, by knocking them out, if you must, but do no permanent harm to them," answered Maehara.

"Okay, then what am I to do?" asked Otohime.

"You are to spend time with Keitaro tomorrow, and don't let him out of your sight needlessly. He will have a few errands to run, and he will also need some help with things he'll be bringing back, if I remember correctly. You are to help him where and when needed with things tomorrow. Kitsune has friends coming in from high school she's meeting elsewhere, and then work later on. Motoko has to work at the local martial arts dojo. While Naru has to work at her part-time waitress job. As for Haruka, Seta, and Sarah, they're currently out of the country, so they'll be safe from what happened the first time around, and should still be safe, this time around. Ema went away for a couple of weeks, on a trip with certain people from her school, and she's not due back for a while, either."

"So it's not likely that any of us will encounter the others tomorrow before you and Kaolla return here, perhaps?" asked Otohime.

"I'll keep her out as long as I can. However, if she's already begun work on the blueprints for certain devices, it may not take her too long to recreate them, I suspect, for she has a great memory for technical and mechanical and engineering details, for instance. And unless I miss my guess, if she doesn't already have the required supplies and can't make them herself, there should certainly be a delivery or deliveries made very soon of them. We must all make sure she doesn't have any opportunity to make the calls for them as best as we each can. If we fail, then we have to do what we still can to prevent the upcoming disaster, no matter what it takes. Lives will depend on what we do and can do here before our deadline. If we fail badly enough, people WILL die. And then things may happen just as they did before, or be even worse than they were originally for us, even, I think. That's why I said failure is not an option earlier."

The women conversed for a while longer with each other, before Maehara said, "I will do all I possibly can to protect the Hunted One, as his Defender. But I still will need your help, ladies. He needs to be kept as busy and as far away from the Apartments as much as possible until further notice, until we have all somehow neutralized and/or eliminated any possible threats to him or anyone else around here. That will be your current job here, Otohime. As for you, Namo, you are to do whatever you possibly can to neutralize and/or eliminate all potential threats on the complex's grounds while I try to keep Kaolla's attentions elsewhere as much as possible, as often as possible, for the immediate future."

It wasn't much longer before they ultimately decided to part from each other for the rest of the night, or even the early morning of Saturday, September 9, 1995. First Otohime left, and then Namo, a few moments later. But not before Maehara reminded them both once more of what they'd then need to do once everyone was up and going about their business on Saturday.

Once Otohime and Namo were gone, Maehara submerged herself again, and let Shinobu's consciousness regain control over her own body. But not before sending her a thought, 'You must protect Sempai, by keeping Kaolla as far away from the Apartments during your time with her, for as long as possible, meaning at least until 5:30 in the afternoon.' Shinobu's consciousness received that thought, but it still didn't begin to immediately consider that thought and all. For it wasn't too much longer before Shinobu ultimately went to sleep in her own bed here. It would later on, but just not yet, for sure.

* * *

So do you think that Maehara will be able to keep Kaolla from actually creating the device or devices that soon will lead to the disaster that the three older women are now trying to keep from ultimately happening or not, somehow? Or that her two current companions will be able to? Also, why was Keitaro referred to as the Hunted One by Shinobu here? You'll all just have to read on and find out, folks.

What do you all think Kaolla's rather thick journal has in it, and what do you think are on the tapes in the set of video tapes that Su's older self gave Maehara prior to her being sent back in time with Otohime and Namo? The contents of those items are key to what may or may not happen in the near future in and around Hinata City, at least. Will whatever's in or on them help prevent the disaster that will occur within one calendar week, if it's not kept from happening or something? Only time will tell, of course.

And with that, I will close this likely three-shot's first chapter here. Hope to see a good number of clean, courteous, and constructive reviews for it very soon, if at all possible, folks. TUS out.


End file.
